:*:BOOK TOUR & REVIEW:*:FIGHTING SHADOWS BY ALY MARTINEZ

I come from a family of fighters. I
always thought I’d follow in their shadows, becoming unstoppable in the ring.
That changed the day I saved the life of a woman I loved, but could never have.

My brother hailed me as a hero, and my
reward was a wheelchair.

Paralyzed, my life became an inescapable
nightmare.

Until I met her.

Ash Mabie had a heart-stopping smile and
a laugh that numbed the rage and resentment brewing inside of me. She showed me
that even the darkest night still had stars, and it didn’t matter one bit that
you had to lie in the weeds to see them.

I was a jaded asshole who fell for a girl
with a knack for running away. I couldn’t even walk but I would have spent a
lifetime chasing her.

Now, I’m on the ropes during the toughest
battles of my life.

Fighting the shadows of our past.

Fighting to reclaim my future.

Fighting for her.

Chapter One

Flint

I remembered it all.

I heard the gun.

I felt the bullet.

I saw her fall.

In less than a second, my
life as I knew it was over.

But, unquestionably, I
would do it all over again.

For her.

“Flint!” Eliza cried from
underneath me.

It wasn’t the way I had
dreamed of at least a million times over the years. Her voice hadn’t broken in
ecstasy. She hadn’t called my name as I’d been claiming her as my own, nor was
it followed by confessions of love and declarations of forever. Instead, there
was a sharp ringing in my ears and a tsunami of tears welling in her deep-blue
eyes.

My heart was already
pounding, but the earth-shattering pain on her face spiked my pulse even
higher. I knew I had been hit, but that wasn’t what scared me.

“Are you hurt?” I rushed
out.

“I’m fine,” she choked
around a sob. As much as I hated to see her cry, the weight of my world
disappeared with only two words.

“Are you sure?” I studied
her, but she was focused on something else completely.

Peering over my shoulder,
she lifted her hand off my back. Blood dripped from her fingertips to the
floor.

“Oh God!” she exploded,
scrambling from under me.

“I’m okay,” I tried to
reassure her, but as I attempted to push up off the floor, I knew my words were
in vain. I was nowhere near fine. “I’m…” I started, but the thought was stolen
from my tongue. Pain overtook me, causing me to collapse face first to the
ground where Eliza had just been lying.

I desperately tried to keep
myself from passing out, but it was a battle I was quickly losing.

“Flint. Stay with me. Just
hang on, please,” she said calmly, kneeling beside me. But as soon as she sat
up, her true emotions were revealed. “Help him!” she cried. “Please, God,
someone help him!”

My mind was drifting,
rendering me unable to focus, but even amongst the chaos of Eliza pleading for
help and security rushing into the room, I somehow homed in on the announcer’s
voice on the television blaring in the background.

“I really expected more
from Till Page in the ring tonight,” he said.

It was then that I was reminded
of a pain far worse than any bullet could inflict.

Till.

Her husband.

The father of her unborn
child.

My brother.

He deserved her, but damn
it, so did I.

My eyes never left hers as
her screams drifted into silence.

***

I awoke to a searing pain
in my back, and panic immediately flooded my thoughts.

“Eliza!” I screamed as
loudly as I could, but it came out as nothing more than a gurgle.

“I’m right here.” She
appeared at my side. “Oh God, Flint. Don’t do that again. You have to stay
awake.” She began smoothing my hair down.

“Eliza,” I repeated when
further coherent thoughts failed me. I was terrified—I knew that much. But my
mind fought to catch up and answer the why. “Are…are you hurt?”

“No. I’m fine,” she assured
me, leaning down and kissing my temple—a gesture I would have killed to be able
to return.

Instead, I blindly reached
out to the side, searching for her hand.
“Stay with me.”

If only she’d meant those
words in the way I would have liked. However, right then, as I lay facedown,
bleeding on the carpet of an upscale Vegas hotel floor with a bullet in my
back, I would take it.

It wasn’t enough.

But it would have to be.

She isn’t mine.

She never was.

As she whispered soothing
words into my ear, I went willingly into the darkness.

***

I slowly roused back to
consciousness. I couldn’t quite figure out where I was or why my throat felt
like I had swallowed a truckload full of burning embers. Even through my
grogginess, I could feel an ache in my back. It wasn’t until I spoke that I
realized how fucked I truly was.

“Ewliz.” What the hell? “Elyz.”

“Oh thank God!” Eliza
cried, suddenly appearing at my side.

Breathing a sigh of relief,
I tried to pry my eyes open, needing nothing more than a glimpse of her dark
blues. They held no superpowers, but I still believed they could heal me with a
single glance. Hell, just knowing she was there with me worked miracles.

I tried to fight, but I
couldn’t seem to convince my eyelids that light wasn’t the source of all evil.

“Shh. It’s okay. Just
relax,” she whispered, reading my struggle. “Are you hurting? Do you need more
pain medicine?”

I’d never forget how he
sounded in that moment. His voice shook like that of the frightened child he
never got to be. He might have only been thirteen, but he hadn’t been a boy in
a long time. Just like Till and me, he’d been forced to grow up too soon.
Hearing the inflection of fear in his voice cleared my groggy mind.

“Em good, Q,” I slurred on
a laugh, even though nothing was remotely humorous about the situation.

I was lying facedown on a
hospital bed, drugged out of my fucking mind, and pining over my brother’s
pregnant wife. The same woman who was the closest thing to a real mother I’d
ever known. The levels of fucked-up could not even be described.

On second thought, maybe
laughing really was the right response.

My brother, Till, was quite
possibly the best man I had ever met. He was only six years older than I was,
but as far as I was concerned, he had always been a father to me. Lord knows
that the man’s DNA I carried was not. My mother was a work of art, but my
father was in a category all of his own. Clay Page was the reason I was lying
in that bed and recovering from a bullet in the back, the reason Till had
almost lost his wife and unborn daughter, and the reason Quarry had almost been
kidnapped.

All I had left in life were
my brothers, and in turn, I had Eliza.

If I could have been half
the man Till was, I would’ve been better than ninety-nine percent of the male
population walking the planet. God, I wanted to be as selfless as he was. But I
wasn’t even close. Instead, over the years, I’d become increasingly jealous of
his life and the way Eliza loved him. Sure, they had their fair share of
problems, but they always weathered the storm together, never wavering in their
devotion to each other. Only a year earlier, my older brother had suddenly lost
his hearing—something that would have easily sent a lesser woman running for
the hills. But not Eliza. She gave him unconditional love, and it stung so
fucking much to watch her give it to him.

The older I became, the
more I found myself consumed by guilt and anger. Guilt because no two people
had ever deserved each other more. And anger because, despite knowing that, I
wanted to shove my brother out of the picture completely. I wanted to own Eliza
Reynolds Page in every possible way, but especially in the way where she never
left me and loved me forever.

I wanted the comfort and
security only she could offer me.

“Eliza?” I called as I went
back to battle against my eyelids and was finally victorious. I was greeted by
the sight of Till holding her tight, his arms folded around her swollen
stomach.

“Hey, bud,” he cooed,
visible relief washing over his face.

But I didn’t have eyes for
him. Eliza stood in his arms with tears flowing in a steady stream down her
cheeks.

My lips twitched in the
most unlikely of smiles.

She always cries.

“You ’kay?” I mumbled.

“I am. Thanks to you.” She
took a step forward, joining our hands.

I laughed, using our linked
knuckles to rub her belly. “How’s ma baby?”

“What’d he say?” Till
asked.

Eliza removed her hands
from mine long enough to translate for him through sign language.

I attempted to roll over so
I could have the use of my hands to communicate with him, but I was stilled by
the sudden shouts.

I lifted a hand to wipe her
tears away. Her eyes were red and puffy, but as she brushed my short hair off
my forehead, she’d never looked more beautiful. Her fingertips trailed over my
skin, soothing my aches from the outside in.

“Let’s get you some more
pain medicine.” She grabbed a red button off the corner of my bed and pressed
it repeatedly.

I wasn’t in any real pain,
but within seconds, my entire body relaxed even further.

She remained squatting in
front of me, and her tears began to dry while she whispered soothing words I
couldn’t quite make out among the myriad of beeping monitors. It didn’t matter
what she was saying though.

She was there.

With me.

For me.

My vision was blurry, but
time stood still as I stared into her eyes and slurred the words I had
absolutely no business saying.

I had been harboring them
for years. But no matter how I tried, no amount of time made them right.

“I love you, Eliza.
Soooooo. Fuuucking. Mush.”

Even drugged out of my
mind, I knew that my admission was going to do more harm than good, but that
didn’t slow the words—or the pain.

Maybe, if I just told her
how I felt, I could let it go. Move on to a day when I wasn’t teased by the
unattainable.It was a grand idea, but
fruition was a different story.

She replied, “I love you
too,” but I knew she didn’t understand.

In that second though, I needed herto understand. It wasn’t a choice.

For her.

Or me.

“No. I loooove you.” I
exaggerated the word but not the truth.

“Shh,” she whispered,
resting her hand on my cheek. “I love you too, Flint. We all do. Just go to
sleep.”

Till needed the chance to
hate me. He had given me everything in life and provided for me even when he’d
had to sacrifice himself. I owed him the truth about the way I felt about his
wife. Regardless that it proved what a dirt bag I truly was.

I lifted my one free hand
in the air and began to sign out the letters, but Quarry stepped between Eliza
and me and forced my hand against the bed.

“Yep. That’s enough. Go to
sleep, asshole.”

“He needs ta know. Tell him
fur me.”

Quarry lifted his hands and
signed to Till without words. He said he
loves us all, and then he got all weepy and called Eliza mommy. I’m just trying
to keep him from embarrassing himself. That’s all.

“Dat’s bullshit,” I replied
when he finished.

“We love you too, Flint.
Get some rest,” Till said, folding his arms across his chest, not buying into
Quarry’s explanation.

“No! I said, ‘I love her.’ Eliza.” I began to point in her
direction, but Quarry once again slapped my hand down.

Turning his back on Till,
he leaned into my face. “Shut your goddamn mouth. I’m trying to help you here.”

“I love her,” I repeated
for the umpteenth time.

Eliza wedged her way back
to my side. “No, you don’t. You’re just drugged up right now, Flint.”

“Bullshit,” I declared
adamantly.

Drugs didn’t cause the way
I felt any more than they could fix it. I’d have been a junkie long ago if
there were something that could’ve quelled the burning in my chest every time I
saw her with Till.

“This isn’t somethin’ new,
Eliza. I think about you when—” I’d started to spill all of my embarrassing
secrets when Quarry’s hand slammed over my mouth.

“I said, ‘Shut the fuck
up,’” he seethed.

“Stop cussing,” I mumbled
from behind his hand.

He looked to Eliza. “Can
you press that button again? Maybe see if he’ll pass out.”

“What the hell is going
on?” Till snapped from behind us, losing his cool with being in the dark.

Nothing. He’s acting like a bitch. Just doing my job as
his little brother to protect his manhood… or something like that, Quarry signed then
flashed Till a tight grin.

“No, I—” I started, and his
hand once again landed over my mouth.

Quarry gave Eliza an
impatient glare.

“He has a few more minutes
before the pain pump will give him any more meds,” she answered, frazzled by my
confession.

And just that small
reaction to my admission hurt more than whatever the hell was happening on my
back.

“Um, I’m gonna step out and
get some water,” she announced uncomfortably.

“Eliza, wait,” I tried to
shout, but Quarry wasn’t lying about not removing his hand. “Get off me.” I
weakly swatted it away.

Glancing back at Till, he
lifted a finger in the air to signal one second. Then he turned back to me.
“Shut up. Shut up. Shut. Up. You’re in love with her, fine. Now, shut up.”

“Not until he knows,” I
replied.

“Go to sleep, Flint. If you
still want to make this mistake when you wake up, I’ll sign it out to him
myself.” He urged me with a hard stare.

I was tired. Sleep didn’t exactly sound like torture. I’d been
sitting on my feelings for Eliza since I was twelve. What was one more night?

“I would take her from
him,” I declared as my lids began to droop.

Quarry busted out
laughing.“Then, when you wake up, I’ll
sign out your warning. Oh, look! Time’s up.” He grabbed the red button and gave
it a push.

I moaned as the glorious
burn of the medication hit my vein.

“Thank God,” he breathed as
I drifted off to sleep.

When I awoke some hours
later, my determination to tell Till had fortunately disappeared.

Unfortunately, so had my
desire for Eliza to know.

But the truth was out.

As the embarrassment set
in, I tried to convince myself that maybe it was for the best that she knew how
I felt.

It wasn’t.

It was a hell of a lot
worse.

There’s something about these Page men that
I can’t get enough of! Continuing the Page family saga, Fighting Shadows is Flint’s
story. Three brothers who grew up in the boxing world, who use that world as
their own. The middle Page brother, Flint, who has done the one selfless act
that has possibly rewritten the Page brothers’ destiny forever, and in the
process put himself on a path he was not expecting.

Aly Martinez. I just love how well she
writes a story. I always start reading and find myself not moving or not wanting
to move until I hit those 2 little words “THE END.” She is in complete control of
your feelings. With the tragic events Fighting Shadows centers on Aly leads her
readers on a fine line of devastation and when as a reader you find yourself
about to be consumed within the angst she throws a little comic relief, a
snarkiness to lift your heavy heart, then she puts you back in the story where
she wants you to be; to feel. Fighting
Shadows is about overcoming what you think is your shortcomings but really it’s
your strength. The power and drive to defeat what you think holds you back from
living your life. Flint Page has always
loved his family and did whatever he could to protect them. Even taking a
bullet for them, especially when it comes to Eliza. But when Flint has Ash
Mabie dive into his live, quite literally, he comes to know what real love is
and with way too many obstacles in the way who knows if Flint and Ash will even
work out.

Fighting Shadows makes you smile through
the pain of Flint Page while being completely content with how the story ends;
only to give the segue into the youngest brother, Quarry Page’s story. I for
one can’t wait for his story in Fighting Solitude.

Thank
you for giving me an advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest experience
and I continue to look forward to more from Aly Martinez and would definitely
recommend everyone to read her.

Born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, Aly Martinez is a
stay-at-home mom to four crazy kids under the age of five, including a set of
twins. Currently living in South Carolina, she passes what little free time she
has reading anything and everything she can get her hands on, preferably with a
glass of wine at her side.

After some encouragement from her friends, Aly decided to
add “Author” to her ever-growing list of job titles. Five books later, she
shows no signs of slowing. So grab a glass of Chardonnay, or a bottle if you’re
hanging out with Aly, and join her aboard the crazy train she calls life.